Fireteam Grave Digger
by Xx13deathsxX
Summary: Spartan IV Desmond(OC) is a new Spartan IV aboard the Infinity, follow him as he goes through hell during his first mission and how it only gets worse for him and yet survives every battle he faces. Please review and leave comments on how this story van be improved. Proofread by swicheroo
1. Chapter 1

Fire team Grave Digger

Location: Infinity Bridge, in high orbit above requiem

1300 hours 1/13/2557

"Alright listen up Spartans, recon shows a platoon size force of covenant moving AA defenses and communication equipment into the swamps of Requiem. Fire team Reaper you are on point for this mission and will provide any additional information to Infinity. You will deploy via drop pods and secure the initial landing zone; afterwards you are to head to rally point Alpha a small ridge overlooking the covenant's position. Fire team Phoenix will deploy to the landing Zone by pelican. You will provide support for Fire team Phoenix while they smash through the covenant's outpost and destroy the AA defenses and communication equipment. When the mission is completed both Fire teams will rendezvous at rally point Bravo for evac, any questions" Asked Commander Palmer. None of the Spartans from either of the Fire teams said anything. "Alright then Reaper head to the drop bay you will be deployed in five minutes, Phoenix head to hangar B-17 where you will take a pelican down to requiem. This is your first mission so don't treat it like one of the simulations you took during training, dismissed." She ordered. _'That was inspiring'_ thought Desmond sarcastically, _oh well I didn't come here to be inspired I have mission to complete. _Soon after both Fire teams headed to their different assigned areas and waited for the mission to begin.

*five minutes later at the drop bay*

"Fire team Reaper, mission is a go happy hunting" said Spartan Miller.

"You heard the man get to your assigned pods this is our first mission and I for one intend not to F*** up!" Screamed Sgt. Rodriguez, Easily larger than your average Spartan Sgt. James Rodriguez was 6'5 had tan skin and buzz cut hair like most Spartans. He was physically fit as every Spartan and the only thing that distinguished him from the rest of the Spartans was his height. His armor is Scout class with Steel as the primary color and rust for secondary, his weapon load out a DMR with a magnum. "Yes sir!" The team replied. Desmond proceeded to get strapped in while securing his own equipment. He was the sniper of the Fire team and was given the standard SRS99C along with a BR55; he also had an obsidian kukri knife attached to the upper right side of his back. He was wearing Venator class with the same colors as the Sgt. which was standard for the entire team. Once everything was set the countdown had begun for drop. 3….2….1, suddenly all the pods shot straight towards Requiem. The intense gravity Desmond was facing was unlike anything he had experienced during training and the heat from re-entry was almost enough to burn his insides out. He looked out the small window of the pod to see his fellow Spartans free falling with him. He then noticed that one of the pods outer plating's where falling apart. The Sgt. Also seemed to notice the same pod.

"Jackson whats the situation on your pod's integrity" He asked frantically.

"The hull is braking off the pod! Inner plating's are beginning to-"His transmission was cut off as his pod exploded from the immense heat, it must have heated the rockets in his pod and detonated them. "There's nothing we can do for him now, all we can do is make sure his sacrifice isn't in vain" the Sgt. Solemnly said. Desmond and Jackson didn't get along during training and compete against each other to prove who the better Spartan was; neither saw each other as friends yet had respect for one another's skill. Desmond felt only sorrow for witnessing his death but had to move on for the sake of the mission. Soon enough the Fireteam broke through Requiem's atmosphere and crashed into the swamps of Requiem. The landing zone was a small clearing that was big enough to hold one pelican. The Fireteam then broke out of their pods, secured their equipment, and formed up at the landing zone.

"Command this is Fireteam Reaper landing zone is secured." Sgt. Rodriguez informed.

"Copy that Fire team Phoenix is on approach eta 7 minutes hold the area till then, be advised there are several covenant squads converging on your position be ready" Replied Spartan Miller.

"Alright Jefferson and Maria take some of the pods and make a small barricade, Dante your with me will try to stall the advance of the covenant squads, Desmond hope into one of the trees and kill anything that isn't human."

"Yes sir" we replied in unison.

Desmond began climbing up to a sturdy branch that could support the weight of his armor, once he found a good enough branch he sat down with one leg dangling of the branch and the other just resting on the branch. He unslung his sniper and scanned the area surrounding the landing zone using the scope on his sniper. The vegetation was pretty dense but not dense enough to where it was impossible to be able to see enemy movement. "CONTACT CONTACT" Screamed Dante. Soon enough plasma and tracer rounds where flying all around, from his small perch Desmond saw roughly about five elites ten jackals and twenty grunts. James and Dante where taking cover behind a couple of trees which were taking the brunt of the plasma onslaught. All of a sudden one of the elites activated its plasma sword and rushed Dante. He noticed the threat and began firing with his MA5B but the bullets were just bouncing of his shield, Desmond took aim and fired a shot when the elite was three feet away from dismembering Dante, the sniper round entered through the elite's eye and blew out the back of its skull. Purple blood and gore was splattered all over the vegetation. The now headless corpse slowly fell to the ground. The remaining elites soon realized that there was a sniper in the area and ordered some of the grunts to start throwing plasma grenades into the trees, none of them coming close to Desmond. The overwhelming fire coming from the enemy caused both James and Dante to fall back to the makeshift barricade with Jefferson and Maria. The covenant continued to move up to where they were five meters away from the rest of the Fire team, however they couldn't move up from the team keeping their heads down and the fact that they hadn't located Desmond also made them cautious. Then the elites organized the five jackals into a phalanx with all twenty of the grunts behind them, once in position the grunts reached for their belts and _Each _grabbed a plasma grenade. _'Twenty grenades will decimate the team' _Thought Desmond. He aimed at the nearest grunt and when they all were about to throw their grenades, he fired and hit his target. The bullet impacted the grenade that the grunt was carrying. It caused the small sphere to prematurely detonate and engulf the grunt holding the grenade and two nearby grunts, which were also holding grenades which caused a large chain reaction engulfing all the grunts and jackals in a white-blue explosion. The explosion also killed another elite and drained the other three elite's shields. Desmond then quickly killed two elites from penetrating their skulls. The rest of the Fire team all brought down the remaining alien.

"Excellent work Desmond!" James exclaimed.

"C'mon Desmond you can't hog all the hinge head kills to yourself" Maria complained.

Desmond didn't respond, dropped down from the tree branch and landed right in front of Sgt. Rodriguez. He surveyed the carnage and even thought the fight felt like it lasted several hours it actually lasted only eight minutes. With the area truly secured the team saw a battered green pelican land in the clearing and disgorged the six blue and red members of Fireteam phoenix. Sgt. Rodriguez walked over to the squad leader and talked about how they were to smash through the covenant defenses.

"What do you we're going to do?" asked Dante

"There probably going to just combine forces and devastate the outpost." Answered Jefferson

"After what we just went through the mission is probably going to be a walk in the park." Maria replied

"This is still our first mission we can't let our guard down." Advise Desmond.

Maria was about to argue when Sgt. Rodriguez returned.

"Team the mission continues as planned we will proceed to Rally point Alpha, move out." He ordered.

'_About time we finish this mission' Desmond thought impatiently._

They began to sprint to the small ridge overlooking the covenant outpost, by the time they reached it the covenant were alert to an enemy presence most likely from the small firefight. The Sgt. Tilted his head to listen to the squad leader from Phoenix, he then looked towards me.

"Desmond Phoenix needs a distraction Jackson was supposed to fire some rockets into the base…sadly that isn't going to happen use your sniper and shoot anything that will cause mayhem." He ordered. Desmond looked through the scope of his rifle and began searching the base for any viable target. He immediately spotted a trio of plasma batteries right next to a wraith. Desmond inhaled and then fired a single shot. The plasma batteries erupted into a vast explosion of plasma energy engulfing the wraith. All of the personnel guarding the outpost looked at the explosion and then Fire team Phoenix began shooting their way to the first target: The communication equipment. The covenant had already begun to assemble it into a large antenna easily reaching heights around 20 meters. Phoenix had little trouble reaching the target since only a small number of grunts and jackals were in the immediate vicinity while most of the elites where investigating the wreckage of the decimated wraith. One of the members of Fire team Phoenix planted a small pack of plastic explosive, more than enough to cause the antenna to crash to the ground. During this entire blitz Reaper were providing suppressive fire which was enough to slow the elites movement to Phoenix long enough to detonate the explosive. With the sound of thunder striking the earth and metal groaning from immense strain the structure collapse onto some support buildings of the compound. It seemed like this mission would be completed in less time than anticipated and nothing would go wrong. Only the enemy was about to prove the entire strike force wrong. Small slipspace distortions were surrounding Fire team Phoenix and out of the distortions revealed the other enemy to humanity: Prometheans. Three Promethean Knights and several crawlers had Phoenix surrounded while a couple of watchers circled overhead. One of the Knights rushed one of the members of phoenix and lifted the Spartan with its sword while impaling the Spartan through its torso. The remaining members of Phoenix began to form a small circle while firing at the Prometheans while the covenant where beginning to advance with newfound spirit seeing their allies cornering their enemy. Reaper did their best to take out as many aliens as possible but there were just too many of them, eventually they will overwhelm Phoenix. '_Things can't get any worse' _Desmond thought solemnly. Then he felt something behind, like the sixth sense sensing imminent danger. He turned around and saw multiple slipspace distortions several yards behind his team. '_Shit' _Desmond thought.


	2. Chapter 2 Ambush

"Behind us!" Desmond screamed. Five Promethean Knights including a commander class knight appeared behind Desmond's team. The commander opened its helmet and let out an ear splitting screech while raising its incinerator cannon. It raised the weapon in slow motion and was about to fire when Rodriguez yelled "Move". The entire team scattered just when the cannon fired everyone dove in a random direction, but Maria wasn't quick enough. When the incinerator round impacted the ground one of the splintering rounds hit Maria in the leg. The force from the round threw her at one of the trees nearby while disintegrating into dust. "Maria!" Jefferson cried in anguish. Jefferson ran at the commander while firing battle rifle even though the bullets bounced off, his rifle magazine went empty. He threw it aside and pulled out his magnum and began to fire when the commander ran at him, drove its swords hand and pierced through Jefferson's helmet. The commander took his hand out of Jefferson's helmet and fired another round at a tree that Desmond was using for cover while Jefferson's corpse slowly fell to the ground. The round detonated against the trunk of the tree but didn't injury Desmond. Dante then took out one of his fragmentation grenades and threw it at the commander. The blast finally brought down the shield of the commander and killed the knight nearest to it while the other three knights provided suppressing fire against the remnants of Reaper. Desmond popped out of cover with his sniper rifle and quickly fired at the skull of the commander. The round penetrated its skull and the commander immediately began to disintegrate while Dante and Rodriguez brought down the other two knights. The last had decided to teleport away from the battle. "We need to move that Promethean is probably going to inform the covenant of our location" Rodriguez had said urgently. '_Great first mission' _thought Desmond solemnly. "Sir what about Phoenix" asked Dante. Rodriguez tried to radio in the Fire team only to receive static.

"I can't contact them, there must be a jammer nearby or they're all dead" Rodriguez said.

"Where are we going then" Desmond asked.

"Fire Base Onyx is five miles west, will have to go by foot" Rodriguez answered.

"What about the mission" asked Dante.

"Phoenix is M.I.A. and Reaper is combat ineffective, will regroup at the Fire base and will see then" Rodriguez replied.

All of a sudden we heard the activation of an energy sword and saw the two white-blue plasma tips go across Dante's torso left to right, slicing through his soldier class armor and cutting him in two. After Dante's torso fell to the ground a purple armored elite zealot uncloaked and roared a challenged to the two remaining members of Reaper. Rodriguez got down on one knee and began to fire his DMR while Desmond switched his sniper rifle for his Battle Rifle. The zealot just shrugged off the bullets that were bouncing around his helmet and charged at Rodriguez. By the time it had reached Rodriguez it raised its sword and brought it down on him. Rodriguez tried to block with his DMR while kicking hard at the zealot's leg. The zealot stopped in mid-slash and stumbled to the ground while Rodriguez rolled to the side, discarded his ruined rifle, and pulled out his magnum. Desmond fired several burst at the zealot but it took cover behind a tree. Rodriguez took out a grenade and threw it at the tree. It blew apart the trunk of the tree to splinters and sending the rest of it descending to the ground, yet there was no sign of the zealot getting wounded or killed in the blast. Desmond walked up to Rodriguez while Rodriguez scanned the area with his magnum and pulled out another grenade. Just when Desmond was a foot away from Rodriguez the zealot uncloaked in front of Rodriguez and drove his plasma sword straight through Rodriguez's torso. Desmond was too stun to move while Rodriguez looked down at the weapon that was burning his organs, he then slowly brought his left hand getting the attention of the zealot and then opened his hand to reveal his grenade. The zealot made a cry of shock and then Rodriguez triggered the grenade. "See you…in hell…..split-chin" Rodriguez said weakly. The zealot attempted to throw Rodriquez away from itself and Desmond but the grenade went off before Rodriguez went far. The shockwave threw Desmond against the trunk of a tree leaving a crater in the trunk. Desmond was dazed from the explosion but his helmet automatically blocked out the sound of the blast. He couldn't sit up straight and when he tried he just collapsed to the ground face first. He raised his head up but his vision was swaying side to side. He looked at where Rodriguez and the zealot and saw a small area on the ground was blackened and broken pieces of scout armor everywhere; a scout helmet was lodged in the trunk of a tree nearby. The dust began to settle and he noticed a silhouette getting up from the edge of the blast zone. When the dust had finally cleared to Desmond's horror he realized the silhouette was the zealot. The zealot had his left arm blown away from the blast from the elbow down. Its armor's shielding and cloaking unit on its back had short-circuited. The zealot knelt down to the ground and picked up a small metallic object two feet away from the blast. When the zealot activated the device his heart filled with dread hearing the whine of the plasma sword coming to life. Desmond immediately began to look around furiously for any weapon he could use; his sniper, battle rifle, and magnum were blown away far out of his immediate reach. He then saw a black metal knife, his kukri knife a few inches just out of his reach. He began to crawl over to his trusted knife will fierce determination. Just when he placed his hand around the grip of his knife he felt an enormous weight pressing against his back. Desmond looked up to see the zealot pressing its right foot against him, it raised the plasma sword and just when it was about to bring it down into his back it deactivated. The zealot looked at his weapon in confusion. A piece of shrapnel got lodged inside the hilt of the sword and had damaged it severely. Desmond took this chance to grab his knife, throw the zealot off his back and tackled it to the ground. The zealot looked at Desmond in complete disbelief that he had been bested by a human; Desmond then raised his knife with both hands and brought it directly down through the eye piece of the zealot's helmet and twisted it to make sure the zealot didn't get back up. It struggled for a few moments as the blade pierced both helmet and flesh and then laid still. Desmond got up, cleaned his knife against the zealot's armor, and picked up both his sniper rifle and battle rifle. He checked his ammo for both rifles and his sidearm. He had about three magazines for his rifle and four for his magnum. Desmond looked at Rodriguez helmet when he was ready to leave '_Goodbye Sgt.'_ He thought. He then proceeded to move west from the area where he fought the zealot. He then noticed a large object being covered up by vegetation. He went for over to inspect it by removing some of the vegetation and saw that it was a covenant ghost. The zealot must have used it to ambush his team. '_This is going to save time heading to the firebase.'_ Desmond thought. He slid into the vehicle's seat, activated the ghost, and practically flew through the swamp west to the firebase.


End file.
